Fix Web Multimedia

What I am thinking is that we need a tech social movement to fix web multimedia by insisting that web standards be followed. REST was such a movement in the protocol space. The Zeldman-inspired movement to use structural HTML and CSS only did the same thing with design. This would be a direct analog for multimedia. Use real URLs that are not hidden behind javascript. Use correct mime types — no making them up because you don’t have time to look up the answer. Use standard data formats — no proprietary types. Use correctly formatted playlists — if you have a ram playlist, the extension must be .ram rather than .rm.

Well said. Creative Commons likes multimedia and believes in building on standards. The web will benefit from this movement. Those interested in building a commons will benefit in particular. Trivial example: It can be a big pain to share and reuse content mediated by a maze of javascript. If you want your content to be shared and built upon, do license it, then follow Gonze’s advice. One way to do this is to take advantage of the Internet Archive‘s ability to host Creative Commons licensed audio and video content.